A Dragon's Light
by zarah joyce
Summary: Is there ever a vulnerable side to one Draco Malfoy? Hermione finds out, in the most unusual way...


**Author's Note: **I would just like to thank those who reviewed my other fic, Reckless Freedom. Though I am disheartened to say this, there will be no Chapter 2 for that fic because it is a standalone fic. Anyways, with that cleared up, I hope you'll read and review this. It maybe a little too farfetched and… well, weird, but I hope you'll like it! 

**A Dragon's Light**

_Though darkness seem to dwell_

_In a heart black as well _

_In the recesses, love takes flight_

_Lo and behold, the dragon's light._

A silent lullaby lulled most of the obedient students to sleep. Slumber was their lover for the night as she caressed and hushed, as she allowed them to drift off in a place solemn and sacred yet completely blissful and enchanting. She was an elusive and cunning woman, that slumber, for she was able to beguile and deceive every being through her whispers of lovely dreams and murmurs of fantasies that will come alive. A few coaxes, a few seductive charms, and soon almost everyone are in her bed for the night, all twisting and writhing in silk and satin sheets. 

Only a few were courageous enough to turn down the temptations of such a temptress. One such soul was that that belonged to one young, fine lad, the one that was looking up at the lovely depth of the night heavens from the windows of a great tower, his gaze filled with curiosity as though trying to fathom all the great mysteries of the universe at once. This lad, now a man and yet still a boy, is also a seeker in so many ways. Questions were his constant companion, questions that begged to be asked and yet remained to be said aloud. In his lonesome, these questions seemed to scream at him from so many directions, the silence becoming so deafeningly loud that he almost gave in to the urge of covering his ears with his hands. But did he? No. His hands remained where they were, rested quite comfortably on his lap. His eyes remained glued to the vast darkness of the evening, seeing clearly yet unseeing perfectly, his silver orbs hardening one moment then softening the next. The changing moods of his eyes had a terrible sway over the expression on his face, for he would look like a tortured angel now and a sensuous lover later. It was nights like this, silent, beautiful nights which stripped him of his sinister façade, which left him with nothing but confusion and bewilderment in their wake.

Such was his state when she found him. Nowadays it was normal for her to see this side of him, this side that he was only willing to share with her, this side that only emerges whenever the sun was already at the mercy of the evening clouds. But this hasn't always been the case.

It was many moons ago, when she had first seen him like this, contemplative and thoughtful instead of menacing and evil. It was truly disconcerting for her to see _him, the sly and fierce wizard with razor-sharp tongue and wicked thoughts, looking so… __vulnerable, so _open_. She was so taken aback by this sight of him that her mouth formed a perfect O and a gasp unknowingly squirmed out of it. That soft sound alerted him to her presence, and that alone effectively ruined the melancholy that had unknowingly cloaked him in its dark embrace.  _

"What are you doing here?" He demanded, his silver eyes instantly hardening to chips of ice. He rose from his position to glare menacingly at her.

"I…" She was absolutely robbed of the ability to speak at first, for she was distracted by the sudden and frighteningly quick change in his demeanor. "I…"

A patented smirk fleeted across his face. "Well?" he said. "Am I going to get my answer or are you just going to stare at me like some crazed fan?" He fanned his hands in front of him and appeared to inspect his nails with interest. "Not really interested in having another member, Mudblood. I've got more fans than you've got strands of that frizzy hair of yours."

That insulting tone, that scathing voice, had done it. The image of the vulnerable-looking man dissipated immediately, as though it had never existed in the first place. "I'll have you know, you insufferable git, that I am here because I am doing my book review of—"

"—My Boring Life, authored by none other than Hermione Granger." He chuckled at his own barb while she glared at him. He motioned at her with his hand. "I'm sure you can do that some other place. Now run along and leave me be, before your dirty blood infect and ruin mine." 

"What about you, what are _you _doing here?" She said, her voice dripping with silk and steel. His blatant command and insult was easily ignored for she did not move an inch. "Wishing on a shooting star that you'll suddenly grow a heart on that empty chest of yours?"

He looked as though her words had wounded him. "Now why would I waste my wish on something I already have? I have a heart, my dear Granger, and its quite in the right place." 

"Yes, it is, dear Malfoy. It's in your arse!" She seethed. "Can't you, for once in your life, be civil? Be other than the completely incorrigible bastard that you are?" 

Silence became her answer. He only stared at her, his eyes hard as moons on his face, his jaw set tight. That face of his became beautiful and horrific at the same time.  "Fine," he breathed out, though the tone in his voice revealed it was anything but. "Stay here."

He moved not a muscle and neither did she. "Well?" she asked impatiently. "Aren't you leaving?"

The Malfoy patented smirk returned full force. "Aren't you a selfish one, Granger?" he said bitingly. "I allow you to share _my _personal space with me, and now _you _demand that _I _be the one to leave? I will do no such thing, you ungrateful wench."

"Fine." She said, physically fighting the urge to push him out of the window of the Astronomy Tower. She then plopped herself down on one chair. "Go on, then. Resume your brooding, oh perfect one. Don't let my presence stop you from thinking of how to end the world."

He seemed taken aback by her remark, but he said nothing after that. 

There came an almost unbearable silence between them, neither one saying anything or even alerting the other of their presence in the room. Every once in a while, he would glance at her, and his gaze would suddenly become sharp as though thinking deeply on why he had allowed her to stay. Every once in a while, she would glance at him, and her gaze would be filled with something akin to an unfathomable amount of disgust. It was never a surprise that these two would come to hate each other so, with their very diverse backgrounds, personalities and friends. It was never a surprise that they would despise the time that they would have to spend with each other, for they both know so little about the other yet act as though they know a lot, and these little judgments, these little seeds of doubt, clouded their thinking and feelings. He was an egotistical prat, she was a know-it-all bitch, and for both of them these little knowledge about the other seemed enough. 

And so it became a surprise for them, really, that this accidental meeting at the Astronomy Tower would be the start of a beautiful friendship. 

To be continued


End file.
